6 



seminal sports from a species, wliicli rarely if ever reproduce tliem- 

 selves true to their kind from seed ; we must propagate them from 

 cuttings or layers, or by grafting them on the species, or a quasi-species 

 of the same genus to which they belong ; for when, as in this case, 

 ornamental tree branches or shrubs are what we desiderate; and when 

 the increase and perpetuation of such things can only be accomplished 

 by such means ; such modes of propagation are pardonable and neces- 

 sary ; but wherever seed can be obtained, no fir nor pine which comes 

 true to its kind from seed should ever be propagated otherwise than 

 from seed ; and this is equally true whether timber or ornament be our 

 object in propagating them. 



In the first stage of cultivation of the firs and pines, I cannot do 

 better than give a summary of the modus operandi wherewith we have 

 practised. About a dozen years ago we commenced what in profes- 

 sional phraseology is termed a Home-!N"ursery, a purely commercial 

 undertaking, for the raising and nursing of forest plants for forest 

 planting ; our object being profitable timber j by judicious manage- 

 ment, and strict economy. A few years later we conceived the idea, 

 and brought forth what we term our Forest Arboretum, — a plantation 

 or place in which from time to time we plant as we obtain new kinds 

 of trees. Our nursery grounds were enclosed from land which had 

 been lying as forest for at least seven centuries, for many years a browsing 

 field for Deer : very variable and dissimilar in its composition; inas- 

 much as it consists of patches of good loam, light sandy loam, gTavelly 

 black and brown earths, stifP, friable, and gravelly clays, gravelly sand, 

 soft sand, and much of it sandy peat ; the subsoils gravelly, marly, 

 and sandy clays ; pure gravel, or hard and soft sands ; some of which 

 are more or less impregnated with iron. Wherever necessary the 

 ground was efi'ectively drained, and then trenched from one-and-a-half 

 to two feet deep. It is thoroughly exposed to all the points of the 

 compass. With the exception of about four acres which we use for 

 seedling ground, any portion of which after having produced a crop 

 is then thrown fallow for a season, and dressed with farmyard manure 

 which has been frequently turned, and two years old before being 

 applied to the ground ; in Avhich it again lies another year before the 

 next sowing ; excepting these four acres none else of it has ever been 

 otherwise dressed or manured than with compost made from our 

 annual cleanings and vegetable refuse, which is carefully collected into 

 annual heaps ; to which is added an annual collection of leaves, and 

 the cleanings of open drains ; all of whicli are then mixed up ; and in 



